To Mardi or Not to Mardi

Mikaela pontificates:
That's New Orlean's question.

The businesses want the show to go on. They say, 40% of New Orlean's budget comes from Mardi Gras. Throwing the party means more money to help return city services and get residents home.

But whose Mardi Gras is it? Tourism is based on culture, yes? But many of the rightful owners of this culture -- those who can authentically lay claim to it -- were bused and flown other places, and they haven't been asked to return.

On NPR, when they were interviewing the President of the Marketing and Convention Visitors Bureau, he was very deliberate when he said tourist industry businesses were the first to step up and help residents, and now they want Mardi Gras to continue to recuperate funds that can bring "some" of them home. I wonder if he includes poor black residents in that "some" or not. I have my suspicions. The some in this case is not even as much as its parts.

He made it out as though tourist industry supports the people. But whose culture supports the tourist industry? Can there be an industry without them? Should there be?

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